LavsLLWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: La is a abbrev, LL is a character, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“La” is an abbrev and “LL” is a character - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#817
“La” frequency rank
#25,651
“LL” frequency rank
26468
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature La LL
Definition Lanthan 17. Buchstabe des modernen albanischen Alphabets (Großschrift)

Letter map: La vs LL

Shared letters muted; letters that set La and LL apart highlighted. Shared run: 1.

2 ch
La
2 ch
LL

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: La is anabbrev and LLacharacter. On the page they differ by a single letter - a in “La” becomes l in “LL”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 26468, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

La is recorded at frequency rank #817, classified as anabbrev. LL is at rank #25,651, tagged as acharacter, pronounced [l̪ˠ(ə)].

Glosses for this pair are partially populated in our dataset, but the full side-by-side definitions above should still guide you to the right choice.

With a confusion score of 26468, this pair ranks #1,817,601 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of La vs LL

Shared letters: l. Private to "La": a. Private to "LL": -.

"La" · 2 letters · shape CV  ·  "LL" · 2 letters · shape CC

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "La" and "LL" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "La" is an abbrev and "LL" a character, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "La" or "LL"?
"La" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #817 in our German list, against #25,651 for "LL". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

You've compared "La" and "LL". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "La" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "LL" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,817,601 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "La" and "LL" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Lai vs LL". Nearby pair

PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list